Isolation of secondary metabolites from roots of Plumbago auriculata Lam. by countercurrent chromatography.

Centrifugal liquid-liquid partition chromatography presents significant advantages for the separation and purification of plant metabolites owing to the short operational time of the process and the elimination of possible irreversible adsorption of compounds. The crude chloroform extract from roots of Plumbago auriculata was analysed by countercurrent chromatography using hexane:ethyl acetate:methanol:water (40:10:10:2, v/v) as solvent system. The isolation of the naphthoquinones plumbagin and epi-isoshinanolone, the steroids sitosterol and 3-O-glucosylsitosterol, plumbagic and palmitic acids was easily achieved. Naphthoquinones are typical components of Plumbago species and they show interesting biological activities.